Kinetic energy driven superconductivity and pseugogap phase in weakly doped antiferromagnets

Abstract

We derive an effective Hamiltonian for spin polarons forming in weakly doped antiferromagnets and demonstrate that the system becomes superconducting at finite doping. We argue that the driving mechanism which gives rise to superconductivity is lowering of the kinetic energy by formation of mobile antiferromagnetic spin bipolarons. That source of attraction between holes is by definition effective if the antiferromagnetic correlation length is longer than the radius of forming polarons. Notwithstanding that the attraction is strongest in the undoped system with long range order, the superconducting order parameter vanishes when the doping parameter decreases which should be attributed to emptying the spin polaron band and approaching the Mott insulator phase. Since the hypothetical normal phase of low density gas of fermions is unstable against formation of bound hole pairs the intensity of low energy excitations is suppressed and the pseudogap forms in the underdoped region.